Posted on 01/16/2008 10:56:46 AM PST by Gabz
2006— January is a resting time in the garden, for us and the soil. A brief respite- a time for reflection and planning, a time for winding down from the holidays as well as a time for beginning to gear up for the coming spring. Looking back on the year just passed; can you believe the weather extremes? Copious amounts of rain, a late spring and an even later fall. Hard to believe we didn’t get a killing frost until well into December, that even in December there were still leaves on the trees. As for reflecting and thinking back, this past year, indeed the last few- have been no good for gardening. Too much rain, too many times, drowned most of our gardens. We planted and replanted, and replanted some more, for all the good it did us. Between disease in our tomatoes and not being able to teach collards to swim, anything harvested last year was a blessing.
Our ancestors knew well the fickleness of weather, tried to keep canned or dried goods and other things put up, enough for at least a three to five years’ supply in case of bad or indifferent crops. These last few years would have tried even their patience. While most of us now garden for fun or as a hobby or as exercise, their lives depended on what they managed to grow. If we, in our area were still dependant on what came out of our gardens to survive, especially in the last few growing seasons, we wouldn’t have to worry about the obesity epidemic. They had to depend on the season’s crops not only for food, but for next years’ seeds as well. If they planted and lost all their seeds, they couldn’t just run down the street and buy more.
Unlike us, they welcomed the arrival of the first weeds of spring. Often, after growing seasons like the past few, when planted greens were hard to come by, wild greens were all they could get. Take dandelions, for example. One of the first plants to green up, they are edible. Every part of the plant is edible- the greens when they are first emerging, the roots, the flowers. Bitter, yes, but chock full of vitamins and minerals. A serving of dandelion greens contains more calcium than a glass of milk. Although I never remember her making it, one of my grandmas had a recipe for so called “dandelion wine”. Made from the blooms, it was more a cure-all than an alcoholic beverage. It was used as a gargle or mouthwash, an antiseptic, a vitamin drink. Think how many millions of dollars worth of vitamins we destroy each year in our quest to eradicate dandelions! On the other hand, if all the dandelions in the world were killed except one, next year there would be just as many, turning their cheerful faces up to the sun, a delight to toddlers everywhere and an aggravation to those seeking perfect lawns.
January in our area is a good time for maintenance work. Time to prune roses and grape vines, and time to get started pruning your fruit trees. If you prune grape vines now, it’s also time to try rooting some of the cuttings. Unlike roses and fruit trees, grape vines are usually grown on their own root stock, so starting new ones from cuttings will work. Roses and fruit trees are usually grafted, which means a plant that has a good root system is used for the bottom half of the plant, and a plant that has desirable blooming or fruiting characteristics is used for the top half. By grafting, which involves cutting two plants apart and binding the root stock of one to the trunk of the other until they become one plant; we get the best of both worlds. That’s why you sometimes see a knot or curve at the base of roses and fruit trees and why it’s also important not to plant grafted things below the graft. Often, shoots will come up from below the graft. These shoots need to be pruned off. They divert vital strength from the main plant and won’t be any good anyway.
It’s a great time to keep your garden plowed or tilled. The colder weather will help kill some insect pests and weed seeds. It won’t get all of the nasties, but turning your soil over will eliminate some of them. One of the worst pests, although not as obvious as some, is the cucumber beetle. A small yellowish beetle resembling a lady bug, most often with spots, sometimes with stripes, it overwinters diseases such as bacterial wilt and squash mosaic virus in its intestinal tract. When you plant your new crop and the cucumber beetle takes a bite, it passes the diseases on to this years’ crops. This is also a great time to mow, plow, or burn the weeds close to your garden. Not only will it expose weed seeds to the elements and to hungry birds and critters, it will remove host plants for other insects that are just waiting to pounce on your fresh plants as soon as they are planted, or your seedlings as soon as they emerge.
2007—Late January is time to try an early planting of potatoes, cabbage, peas, onions, broccoli- any of the cole crops that might survive. Maybe it has finally gotten cold enough to plant bulbs. The only problem with waiting so late to plant bulbs is you don’t much feel like doing it now!
January is a time to kick back in your favorite rocker or recliner in front of the fireplace and enjoy perusing the multitudes of seed catalogs that start flooding our mailboxes this time of year. Turning the pages until they are tattered and dog-eared, drooling and deciding, plotting and planning, never losing hope that this year’s garden will be a bumper crop. Wondering if this or that new variety can possibly be as great as the seed catalog makes it sound, trying a little of the new seeds and mixing them with the tried and true favorites.
Hope you enjoy your well earned rest and here’s hoping this year will give us a much better gardening season.
I am in a 7b zone
Thinking positive!! Thinking dirty!!
LOL!!
The zone markers are great rules of thumb. Again, area specific. We’re in the same zone as most of the upper west coast, but the climates are very dissimilar. Oregon has close to the same temps we do, but little to no humidity, which is why we get our J&P roses from them.
The J&P office called once and asked where to tell the driver we were located. We were the last stop, and I told her—keep driving east. We’re the farthest point sticking out into the Atlantic on the NC coast except Hatteras. If the truck falls into the Atlantic, you’ve gone a little too far!
All of you participated in T-Bird’s thread about tomatoes and mentioned gardeing.
Thought some of you might be interested in this. Let me know if you would like to be on the ping list. This is just a one time ping because I snagged you name from the other thread :)
Sounds like a win-win all around!
“...Turning the pages until they are tattered and dog-eared, drooling and deciding, plotting and planning, never losing hope that this year’s garden will be a bumper crop. Wondering if this or that new variety can possibly be as great as the seed catalog makes it sound, trying a little of the new seeds and mixing them with the tried and true favorites.”
Exactly what I am in the mood for right now! Thanks to both of you for a great new thing on FR!
I’m borderline of both 7a and 7b, but as GG says, climates are different from one part of the zone to another.......it gets soooooooo confusing to me at times :)
Aw... Thank you for the ping, as I await another snow fall and dream of getting to the garden once again.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
You picked one of my favorite lines in the column!
I don’t know who is worse with the seed catalogs in this house.........I’ve got to fight with both my husband and my daughter to get them to remember to put them back where I keep them so that I can find them!
I’m in Central Ohio in zone 6. Zone 6b according to the maps.
Although no matter how much of a close up of my area I find it is nearly impossible to tell if I’m in zone 5 or zone 6, I always figure it is 6 based on the temperature info. If you drive north from our house you seem to drive over a magical line that I call the snow line. The folks up there always get a lot more snow than we do and their kids miss a lot of school for snow days.
Please add me to the ping list for a weekly gardening thread.
It started snowing here yesterday while we were on the other thread and I was going through online seed catalogs!!!
Alas, although it was practically whiteout conditions for a little while, it was all gone within a couple hours.
I think those magical snow lines exist everywhere. I’m in zone 7, just like when I lived in Delaware, but we wind up with fog delays and closings here as opposed to the snow closings they get there, or even 20 miles north of me in Maryland.
You’ve been added!
What zone are you in?
Thank you Gabz! I look forward to this ping!!
This past year was my first time to plant a veg. garden. It was a small raised bed. Tomatoes, bell, banana and jalapeno peppers. My tomatoes did ok but not anything like I was expecting. I think I got them started (from seed) to late and the mid summer heat slowed production. They did rebound again in the fall but I had a lot of green ones I had to pick before the frost. They were pickled and jared along with jalapenos. Great on a cracker with some cheddar cheese.
I’m in Northeast Louisiana, Zone 8a.
ping to me
actually having to deal with the sandy stuff the builders bring in the fill the lots when they build. Our house is backed up to a creek and was built on pasture land, so I dont think we'll have too much of a problem with soil. My worst problems are the nutsedge and the fireants. I like to grow herbs and edible flowers as well as fragrant ones, but want to grow a few vegetables because I get tired of having to go to the store for them.
If you cross the county line—less than 3-ish miles from where i work, a little farther from where i live—we have that same magical line. if it snows, it usually stops right there. Same thing with rain, course that can go either way.
in the summer we have prevailing winds off the ocean. it can make for some hellacious aft thunderboomers! The runways at cherry point mcas draw storms like a magbet.
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